Kolkata Metro woes to subside by August

It may well take till August for the Kolkata Metro to sort out its infrastructural problems, as well as to throw open to public the final stretch of the southern extension.

The city's transport lifeline has been struggling to function in recent months due to breakdown of its ticketing system and lack of rakes, even as ridership numbers have risen.

After not meeting the earlier deadline of March 31, for procuring new rakes, sources at Kolkata Metro have indicated that the prototypes are likely to arrive by June-July.

Subsequently, it is understood that they will undergo test runs on the network and once all parameters are met, commercial production will commence.

If all goes well, the new rakes will start plying passengers from around August.

Sources added that Chennai's Integral Coach Factory (ICF), where the rakes will be manufactured, have started work on the Kolkata Metro's coaches on a “war-footing”. ICF officials had earlier indicated that the construction of the prototypes may be delayed as certain materials had to be procured from Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) on time for the project to move as scheduled.

A new and improved ticketing system for the Kolkata Metro is likely to be in place by August as well.

The Indian Railways' Information Technology division — Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) — is undertaking the creation of a new system on the lines of the RFID (radio-frequency identification) smartcards and tokens that are used by the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC).

The dysfunctional ticketing arrangement, primarily using magnetic-strip tickets, has been unable to cope with the increase in ridership after a 5.8-km-long section of the southern extension was opened last year.

Although the number of passengers increased, the growth in earnings hasn't been proportional.

Metro sources, however, said that the new system would be functional by July-August, in sync with the six-month time line that CRIS has provided to its vendors for commissioning the project.

These two infrastructural improvement could also dovetail with the opening of the final 2.8-km-long stretch southern extension.

“Certain issues are holding up the completion of the last few stations on the extension line. There were some encroachments as well as problems with the approach roads. This has now been sorted out and we hope to open the last section by July-August,” an official said.